Sunday. Hyrum fell asleep on the way home, so I carried him up to his crib, got Ava a snack, then rested on the family room couch. I was soon asleep, and woke only briefly when Jake came home. He went downstairs to watch scripture videos with Ava, and I went back to sleep. I woke to the sound of Hyrum stepping down the stairs, one at a time, his elephant hanging from his hand, calling, “ma!” in his little raspy wake up voice. We went downstairs to find Jake and Ava asleep, so we put on our shoes and wandered out back for a little walk by the pasture near our house. Hyrum stopped and squated to observe every moving thing, every grasshopper, cricket, and ant. And he loved to watch the horses. “Mom, orse, neigh!” he’d say.
We had breakfast for dinner, I burned the bacon so we opened the doors and windows before the smoke alarm went off. All the flies came in. After dinner at Ava’s request, we went outside to the trampoline to watch the sunset. So many giggles playing out there. In true Schellenberg fashion, Jake was jumping and rolling in his Sunday best. The kids loved having him home. We stayed until the sun went down and the colors got brighter, then huddled downstairs to watch home movies. Hyrum wandered around the room most of the time, but Ava seemed so captivated, smiling as she watched her 1 year old self babbling away.
It’s Tuesday now, but I wanted to write that down to remember it. Surely the day was not without meltdowns and messes, but it was our together time, the four of us, and it was so good as simple as that. #mamanotes
Monday. I sat against the garage with my recipe book and sticky pad, waiting for Ava’s bus and trying to come up with a menu for the week. I like planning the meals, and a new recipe sounds like fun until the end of the day when I’m so tired that tuna sandwiches sounds like a great idea. So tuna sandwiches it was!
I packed steamed veggies in a tupperware, grabbed a can of pineapple, and wrapped some forks in napkins and we had ourselves a nice little picnic at the park! Jake replaced the tire on my bike when he got home, so we packed the picnic supplies in the back of Hyrum’s bike trailer, and biked around for a bit before stopping to eat at the park. Ava ate mostly pineapple and Hyrum ate everything. The sun went down quickly so we didn’t stay long. For family home evening we talked about the story of the Ten Lepers and how God gives us miracles and blessings too–then we went outside and looked at the stars with Jake’s new super laser pointer. It kind of scares me how strong it is, but the kids loved it.
Lately the kids have had a hard time getting to sleep because Hyrum keeps getting out of his crib. A lot of times he rolls out onto Ava’s bed, but then they chat and giggle or tease and neither of them gets to sleep. Well last night they fell asleep in the same bed! Hyrum was kind of on top of her all sprawled out, but it was the cutest thing. We put him in his crib, then retired for the night ourselves at 9:30! That’s been our goal for a LONG time and it felt pretty good to stick to it. #mamanotes
Hyrum’s been doing a lot of roaring lately, so it seemed only fitting to get a lion costume for him. Then I thought how cute it would be for Ava to be Dorothy, and since she has no idea who Dorothy is, we all watched The Wizard of Oz last night, despite the memories I have of being terrified of witches and tornadoes after seeing the movie when I was her age. 😁 She loved it and so far doesn’t seem scared so that’s good. This morning after her bath she brought me a hairbrush and two hair ties and said, “Mom, since I’m going to be Dorothy, I should do my hair in two French braids like her.” So I braided her hair and not an hour later we got the costumes dropped at our door. She was SO excited, and danced around the room for a good ten minutes with it on, only changing her clothes to play outside with her friends. Sure glad that worked out. 👍 #mamanotes
